Ponderings
by Kriss Kay
Summary: When Goofy dies while saving King Mickey, Donald begins to wonder why he was so shocked.


Ponderings

Author's Note: I do not own Disney, SquareEnix, or much of anything for that matter. Also, the only names that are canon are Donald Duck, Daisy, Goofy, and Max. Everything else is what people call "creative liscencing" or something like that. Whee.

Donald Duck pondered a lot within the hours Goofy's "death" and sudden return. And as a magician, pondering was natural. After all, magic equals intelligence. With magic, you had to concentrate on the spell, the degree, magnitude, and the direction. Anyone could swing a sword or raise a shield, but magic, that took brainpower.

So as the pondering continued, one question plagued his thoughts. Why was he so concerned about that dog's death? The man was obviously not the brightest crayon in the box, and he wasn't the best fighter. He angered the magician on numerous accounts with his simplicity. He could have figured out that Ping was really a girl on his own, but of course HE had to state it like it was the most obviously thing in the world. At least the Keyblade master didn't notice as well.

What he pondered about he most is why his target of his pondering was so simple. He remembered the simpliton as a great general, strategizing about every battle, every possibility. The two of them would stay up all night thinking of battle plans and choosing the one with the least amount of casualties. They'd share drinks, stories, and laughs about the field, the general joking about the mage's "silly little sparks", the mage replying that he was jealous of the sparks.

They were both married, the mage to a wonderful girl named Daisy, the general to a woman named Victoria. The general and Victoria soon had a son, Max. The mage and Daisy tried to have children, but there was always something. Teaching the nephews their lessons, Daisy advising the Queen, their time together shortened each day. However, when all four of them were together, it was as if time stood still. The four of them would stay in the same booth of the same restaurant way past the closing time, laughing and telling stories of their adventures, usually about Max and the nephews. When the manager would kick them out, the four of them retired to their respected homes, returning to the real world with the promise of seeing each other again.

It was soon after that when tragedy struck. Victoria, the general's wife, passed away. No one saw it coming. One day, she was playing with Max in the front yard, and within the hour, she had collapsed. By the time doctors arrived, she was gone.

The mage then saw a change in the general. First of all, the general quit the force to live a much simpler life. The now discharged general then worked as an advisor to the King, while raising Max at the same time. He would made mistakes, taking Pluto home and leaving Max at the castle, getting problems and solutions mixed up, so the cooks would be negotiating with the cake batter, while the council would be adding more sugar to the ambassadors. These mistakes happened frequently, so soon, the former general was simply known as Goofy. If anything went wrong, then people would say, "Oh, it's just Goofy."

The years went on, and soon Max was a teenager. He was the spitting image of his father, but his mannerisms were a lot like Victoria. Headstrong, independent, willing to help anyone in need, even in the direst situations. It was because of this that Max decided one day to become a doctor. To travel to different worlds, helping the sick and broken, so no one would suddenly collapse like Victoria. When Max graduated from university, he took off in the first gummi ship he could to find a master of medicine. It has been four years, and no one had heard from Max again. For the first time, Goofy was truly alone.

There was always an aura of depression surrounding Goofy, but when the mage would ask, he would give a huge grin as if nothing was wrong. The mage would always want to press further, to be the shoulder to cry on, but it never came up. Goofy would leave, leaving a very frustrated mage.

When the king assigned the pair to find the keyblade wielder and a man named Leon, the mage figured this would be perfect for the two to become friends again, to laugh about the "silly sparks" and find the best strategy to go about finding the people. But the gummi ride was silent. No sounds of laughter, no jokes. Just the whirring of machinery and the humming of the engine kept the mage company. As pondering came easily to the mage, he kept having thoughts that his old friend was truly gone.

So when Goofy was killed two years later, it was the first time the mage was shocked, but not because of the death itself. For the first time since Victoria died, the mage saw his old friend, Geoff. The selfless hero, willing to sacrifice himself to save the lives of anyone who needed saved. That, the mage concluded, is why he was shocked when he died.

But there was something else, the mage thought. Something so obvious, something the mage never figured out until that moment.

Admiration.

Here was someone who had lost everything, his wife, his son, yet despite that, he kept going. Goofy had truly been dealt the worst cards in life, yet he still gave a grin, a small laugh, and marched on to his own beat. Of course he was a bit odd, he was Goofy, but he was also Geoff, the smartest and most caring general in the entire kingdom.

Of course it took years for the mage to figure this simple observation out. He was a duck of science after all.

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